Nader needles OMB over widespread Microsoft use

The Consumer Project on Technology, a lobbying group headed by Ralph Nader, is calling upon the Office of Management and Budget to consider the feasibility of purchasing an office productivity suite outright to replace the products the government licenses from Microsoft Corp.


The group cites the need to strengthen software security and foster a greater competitive climate.


In a June 4 open letter to OMB Director Mitch Daniels, the CPT petitioned OMB to encourage the federal government to use its "purchasing power to solve issues concerning security and competition in the software market."


The letter singled out Microsoft, noting that the company "has an astounding market share for desktop operating systems and office productivity software," and that "the Department of Justice is spending years in court trying to restrain very modest elements of Microsoft's monopoly abuses."


The group charged that widespread use of operating systems and office productivity suites from one company creates unnecessary security risks for agencies, as this monoculture makes it easier for computer viruses to propagate. It also encourages the company to engage in anti-competitive practices against other software makers, the letter said.


OMB should investigate how much money the government has spent on Microsoft products and evaluate the economic advantage of purchasing "outright the code to the components of a high-quality office productivity package, including the basic functions of word processing, spreadsheets, presentation graphics and e-mail clients," the letter said. That software could then be placed in the public domain.

The letter also suggested looking at using open source and other proprietary software packages as alternatives, and modifying procurement policies to demand Microsoft fully disclose the formats its program use, "so that the data created in such programs could be reliably read by non-Microsoft software."


Microsoft spokesman Keith Hodson said the government's use of a dominant computing platform does not create greater risk of computer viruses. A more heterogeneous computing environment has "no limit in the variety of viruses that could be produced," he said.


"We think if Ralph Nader took a close look at the software industry, he would find no one company is delivering more technologies to consumers, business and government than Microsoft," Hodson said.


CPT's letter can be found at www.cptech.org/at/ms/omb4jun02ms.html.